big losses overnight in europe and the u.s. new york share prices plunged on wednesday as u.s. policymakers could not resolve their deadlock over raising the nation's debt ceiling. the dow jones industrial average lost more than 198 points and ended the day wednesday that is at 12,302. the index had dropped over 200 points at one stage. investors placed sell orders on a wide range of issues as lawmakers could not reach an agreement on the debt limit. the stock market lost more ground after the u.s. central bank said the american economy is slowing down in its periodic survey of economic conditions. sources say the focus of market players now is whether lawmakers can come up with a deal before the august 2nd deadline. >>> and to see how stocks are trading here in japan this thursday morning, we cross over to ramin mellegard who is at the tokyo stock exchange. good morning. what can you tell us? >> good morning to you, ai. whey can tell you is that the nikkei has broken below the key psychological 10,000 for the first time in six trading sessions so that's the key bit of informat